Severe injury to body limbs, particularly injuries involving a fracture of the bone, are typically treated by immobilizing the injured limb in a rigid cast. Prior to about 1980, the vast majority of such rigid casts were made of plaster of Paris. Since about 1980, synthetic casting materials, particularly those comprising a knitted fiberglass fabric impregnated with a water activated polyurethane prepolymer resin system, have become quite popular. These polyurethane casting materials, like plaster of Paris bandages, are dipped in water, then wrapped around the injured limb or body part and shaped while the material is soft and pliable. The resin cures into a rigid immobilizing cast within a few minutes after application to the body.
Polyurethane casts offer numerous advantages over plaster of Paris, including a high strength-to-weight ratio, porosity, improved radiolucency, and water resistance. Because of these advantages, they are generally preferred, even though they are somewhat more expensive than plaster of Paris.
Plaster of Paris casts and known polyurethane casts, because of their rigidity, are often not suitable for treating injuries where total immobilization is not necessary and/or desirable, as for example, in the case of strains, sprains, and some minor fractures. These injuries are typically treated with a flexible type support such as tape or an elastic bandage, e.g., an "Ace" bandage, which is not impregnated with a hardening agent. Such supports offer various degrees of immobilization, and the support they provide is not necessarily stable and constant over time.
Furthermore, the rigid plaster of Paris and polyurethane casts of the prior art are unsuitable for use by athletes who choose to participate in athletic activities despite an injury. In such instances, the hardness and/or weightiness of such a prior art cast, if worn by the athlete, would present a safety hazard to all other participating athletes. Some athletes have sought to use support devices made of silicone rubber impregnated gauze as a means of protecting their injuries while reducing the safety hazard posed to the other participating athletes. However, such silicone rubber impregnated support devices still do not provide the degree of resiliency necessary to ensure safe usage, and in fact, the bulkiness and weightiness associated with silicone rubber often render the devices yet unsafe.
Thus, it would be a significant advancement in the art to provide a custom-fitted resilient support device which offers the stability of a cured cast without the rigidity and degree of immobilization attendant with currently available casting materials. Moreover, it would be another significant advancement in the art to provide such a resilient support device which can be worn by an athlete without posing significant safety risks to other participants. Such resilient support devices are disclosed and claimed herein.